When the Federal Suffrage Amendment passed in the U.S. House and Senate on June 4th, 1919, there were many calls in North Dakota for a special session so North Dakota could ratify the amendment. However, Nonpartisan League Governor Frazier did not want the expense of a special session just for the sake of suffrage.

The want ads have been a staple in newspapers for generations. The simple premise of posting sale items or help-wanted ads has continued in virtually every community. Today, those ads from the past provide a glimpse into the services, wages, and community, of the decades gone by. Here’s a sampling of Fargo Forum newspaper ads from this week in 1909:

Erosion is constant in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where the colorful but crumbly Badlands are on full display. A scenic loop rings the park’s South Unit at Medora, taking visitors through prairie dog towns, river bottomland and layered bluffs. The park was established in 1947 as Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park, but the 21-mile loop wasn’t completed until 1968, when the final seven miles of road were laid. Visitors previously had to retrace the road from Wind Canyon and Buck Hill

On November 2, 1920, eligible men and women around the country were able to vote equally in the election for the first time. According to the census bureau, approximately 26 million women were now able to vote. However, there were still an estimated 1.5 million women considered ineligible.

Typhoid is caused by bacteria associated with human waste. In the fall of 1893, Crookston had several dozen cases of typhoid, and as a precaution, authorities on this date flushed the city’s backed-up sewer main into the Red Lake River. Bad idea. Practically every downstream neighbor was affected, from farmhouses to small towns. Grand Forks, which had about 8,000 residents, was hit the hardest, with a typhoid outbreak about a month after the Crookston flush. Grand Forks drew its drinking water

News from around the state on this date: In 1894, Fessenden was itching to take over the Wells County seat, which they took from Sykeston ten days earlier. Sykeston lost the election fair and square, but things weren’t moving fast enough for some; so, a number of Fessenden residents took 20 wagons to Sykeston and forcibly took possession of county records. These other events on this date come from 1911.

On this date in 1943, Earl Charles Reineke married Jane Marie Early. He was a broadcaster, and she was a dancer and professional model. Before his death, Reineke established a foundation to establish an educational or scientific memorial in Fargo, and when she died, half of Mrs. Reineke’s estate was added to the foundation. Their shared dream materialized with the construction of the Reineke Fine Arts Center at NDSU in 1982.

As what would become North and South Dakota moved towards statehood, regional differences became more apparent. The south had a population of over 98,000 in 1880 when the northern population was only 37,000. The two regions also had different commercial transportation routes. The north was tied to Minneapolis-St. Paul; the south to Omaha and Chicago. There was also something of a personality difference. The south tended to view itself as more civilized and cosmopolitan, while the north was seen

On this date in 1950, the results of the Sears-Roebuck safety slogan contest in Bismarck were in. The winner was a 10-year-old from Ft. Lincoln, for his slogan, “Go Slow or You’ll Go – Fast.” His award was a gold-colored statue of Roy Rogers’ horse, Trigger.

Suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns learned about militant protest tactics from suffrage efforts in England. They felt such tactics could help in the United States, but the National American Woman Suffrage Association did not approve, so they founded a separate group, the National Woman’s Party, under Alice Paul’s leadership.